Email this article to a friend

Senators propose 3.3 percent federal pay hike to start in 2015

Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) introduced legislation Friday
calling for a 3.3 percent pay increase for federal employees. If enacted, feds
would see the increase from the Federal Adjustment of Income Rates (FAIR) Act go
into effect in calendar year 2015.

"Hardworking federal employees did not cause our fiscal crises nor did they
contribute to the legislative gridlock, but time and again they have been asked to
pay the heaviest price toward a resolution. In Maryland and across the nation,
these public servants, mostly middle class and struggling to get by like so many
other Americans, deserve recognition and thanks for their hard work and
dedication," Cardin said, in a press release.

Federal employees emerged from a three-year pay freeze last December, when
President Barack Obama signed an executive order to increase
federal workers' pay by 1 percent effective Jan. 1, 2014.

The 3.3 percent increase proposed by Cardin and Schatz would raise the pay of both
General Service and hourly workers.

In announcing the legislation, Schatz said the federal workforce needs to be
strengthened and encouraged.

"The knowledge, expertise, skill, and commitment of our public sector workforce
are some of America's greatest assets," he said, in a release. "No other nation
can match our public workforce's professionalism and level of accomplishment. ...
Our federal employees bore the brunt of the sequester, enduring furloughs and a
three-year pay freeze. Our bill would give these working families a raise they
deserve."

House Democrats introduced their own pay-raise bill in March, calling for the same
3.3 percent, across-the-board pay increase.

"By investing in the federal government's most valuable resource, its talented
workforce, the FAIR Act would begin repairing the significant damage that has been
wrought on our overworked, underpaid, and unappreciated career civil service,
while helping to ensure we can attract the best and the brightest to build the
federal workforce of the future," said Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), who introduced
the House bill with Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.).

Both the Senate and House bills call for a higher increase than the 1 percent hike put
forward by the President's budget proposal, which was released on March 4.

"Federal employees have seen their standard of living deteriorate in recent years
due to a three-year pay freeze, unpaid furloughs, and higher retirement
contributions for newer workers," said J. David Cox Sr., national president of the
American Federation of Government Employees. "This legislation by Sens. Schatz and
Cardin would help federal employees recoup some of that lost income and ensure the
government is able to recruit and retain the high caliber workers that taxpayers
expect."

Cox called the President's proposed 1 percent pay increase "pitiful" in light of
the sacrifices made by federal workers in the last few years.

"Federal employees are on the hook for $138 billion in lost earnings thanks to
years of policies that put slashing the deficit ahead of creating new jobs," Cox
said. "A 3.3 percent increase would provide employees with a fair and meaningful
raise for the first time this decade."

National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association President Joseph
Beaudoin thanked Schatz and Cardin for their support of federal workers.

"Over the past four years, federal employees have contributed over $120 billion
towards deficit reduction," he said, in a release. "It's time we thank them for
their service and sacrifice, rather than continue to devalue it."

Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, also applauded
the legislation.

"After several years of pay freezes, unpaid furloughs and government shutdowns, it
is time for federal employee pay to get back on track," she said, in a release.

Likewise, Federal Postal Coalition Chairman Bruce Moyer welcomed the proposal as a
step to help address the pay gap between federal workers and those in the private
sector.

"While private sector wages have risen 6.5 percent in the last four years, federal
employees had their pay frozen for three years and only received a 1 percent raise
this year," he said, in a release. "Three years of frozen salaries caused the
public-private sector pay gap to exceed 35 percent, with federal employees lagging
behind. Instituting a raise of 3.3 percent, 2.3 percent higher than that proposed
by the President, will allow the federal government to compete for top talent in
the workplace."